School Didactics And Learning: a school Didactic Model Framing An Analysis of Pedagogical Implication of Learning Theory

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) which takes place in institutionalized educational settings guided by a curriculum collectively
agreed upon. A conceptual structure within the school didactic field of research is thus not to be understood
as a general theory of education or teaching.
The aim of presenting this descriptive model is twofold. First, it may be viewed as an effort to contribute
to the development of didactic theory. Second, the model also offers a framework for the following
investigation into pedagogical implications emanating from learning theory. It is considered valuable that the
solution offered concerning the first problem, i.e. the didactic model presented, offers the framework for
analysing learning theory in the second part of this study.
The Second Problem
The second problem in this study is to investigate the pedagogical implications of the cognitivist theory of
learning. This part of the study is to be conceived as a clarification of the pedagogical model presented; if
pedagogical practice aims at affecting an individual’s possibilities of reaching competence through the
process of learning, then it is reasonable to expect that the theory of didactics recognizes learning theory.
The answer to this problem offered by the model presented here is that learning theory is accepted as having
a prescriptive function in two different but related ways.
Firstly, learning theory is assumed to play a role in pedagogical practice since a teacher may reflect
analytically on theories of learning, i.e. what it means to attain a certain degree of competence and further
that the teacher, on the basis of such reflection, makes decisions on how to organize and carry out the
teaching-studying-learning process. (The expression “teaching-studying-learning process” is shortened to the
acronym TSL process in this study.) In doing this the teacher reflects analytically and acts in a normative or
prescriptive fashion; if acquiring competence “X” means “Y” then one should do “Z”. 
Secondly, precisely because of this it is important to investigate what kind of pedagogical implications
different theories of learning have. Therefore the second part of this study is devoted to an analysis of
cognitivist learning theory. Prescriptive propositions may thus be handled within the framework of an
otherwise descriptive didactic model. Yet, even though we may use descriptive didactic theory as a general
frame of reference in this study, it does not offer us the instruments to analyse theories of learning
themselves. Rather, the didactic frame of reference shows us why and how learning as a phenomenon is
important in the theory of didactics and in pedagogical practice.
The chosen level of analysis, when the cognitivist theory of learning is investigated, is the philosophy of
mind. This was considered a reasonable level since it contained problems that every learning theory deals
with in one way or another. Two problems were chosen. Firstly, the relation between an individual’s
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SCHOOL DIDACTICS AND LEARNING

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conceptual knowledge and external reality, and, secondly, the problem of how to describe this conceptual
knowledge.
The first problem deals with what it is to have knowledge of the world. Since teaching and education
often aim at increasing, developing or changing an individual’s knowledge, the question of what it means to
possess knowledge is naturally a fundamental one from a pedagogical perspective. This is identified as the
epistemological mind-world problem.
The second question deals with the problem of how to describe an individual’s understanding of the
world, his knowledge, mental representation, conceptual structure, etc. In order to be able to change this
understanding or conceptual knowledge structure, i.e. to facilitate learning, we must decide how we want to
describe what it is to be aware of something. In particular, we must know how we want to describe and
discuss a change in this awareness of something. This question is identified as the ontological mind-brain
problem.
Having investigated how the cognitivist theory of learning appears in the light of these two problems, we
are ready to return to a didactic level of reasoning. Instructional implications of cognitivist learning theory are
organized on the basis of the analysis carried out on the level of the philosophy of mind.
THE APPROACH